Dr. Kamran Safi

Main Focus

My research interests lie in understanding the causes
and consequences of biological patterns at various scales and from different
perspectives. I am an ecologist by training with research interest in movement
ecology, macro-ecology and macro-evolution. In movement ecology, I am
interested in relating individual animals to the environmental conditions they
operate under to learn the causes and consequences of environmental fluctuation
on animal movement across scales. Methodologically I am deeply interested in
combining and fusing data from the wild, using a wide range of sensors deployed
on animals, with remote sensing and other sources of information at large spatial
and temporal scales. My work is both method driven as well as grounded in the
frame work of (movement) ecology and is based on computer-intense simulation
and probabilistic analysis methods. Scaling up from individuals, to
collectives, populations, species and species communities, my macro-ecological
ambitions are eventually to understand the scale effects associated with
extrapolations from individuals to on higher taxonomic levels. Beyond that I am
interested in the relationship of various diversity measures and what they can
tell about how biological diversity has evolved and is maintained. Finally,
from an macro-evolutionary perspective I am interested in the intersection of
traits and occurrence where species, populations and individuals not only are
adapted to their environments, but also the environment filters for certain
traits and combinations thereof, shaping the evolutionary landscape.

International collaborations

Jonathan Baillie, Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom

Frederic Bartumeus, CEAB, Blanes, Spain

Tim Blackburn, Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom

Gil Bohrer, The Ohio State University, USA

Kate E. Jones, Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom.

Nathalie Pettorelli, Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom

Jeroen B Smaers, University College London, London, UK

Teaching

· Co-organisor and lecturer of AniMove, a two week summer school 2013 for movement ecology and remote sensing (www.animove.org)

Bart
Kranstauber, main PhD thesis supervisor, University of Konstanz and
International Max Planck Research School: An evolutionary approach to
animal movement beyond taxonomic and geographical barriers.
2010-2014

Curriculum Vitae

2009 - today Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. Head of the computational ecology group. Faculty member of the International Max Planck Research School.2009 - 2011 Honoury research fellow Zoological Society of London, Institute of Zoology.2007 - 2009 Postdoctoral fellow: Zoological Society of London, Institute of Zoology with Dr. Kate E. Jones on the project "Adding history to Ecology".2006 - 2007 Head of scientific application at NewBehavior AG.2002 - 2007 PhD thesis „ Social sexual segregation in the absence of size dimorphism: causes and consequences” Supervised by PD. Dr. G. Kerth and Prof. B. König at the university of Zürich, Zoological Institute, Animal Behaviour. Conducted as a part of the interdisciplinary graduate school: “Wissensgesellschaft und Geschlechterbeziehungen” at the University of Zürich. 2000 - 2001 MSc in Biology “Olfactory communication in the Bechstein’s bat” Supervised by PD. Dr. G. Kerth and Prof. B. König at the university of Zürich, Zoological Institute, Animal Behaviour.1996 - 2000 Studies of Biology at the University of Zürich / Switzerland1996 Graduation from High school